and described the existing ruins of these sacred edifices, denied that
the _maraes_ (_morais_) were places of burial, while he allowed that
they were places of worship.[125] He distinguished a _marae_ from an
_ahu_, admitting at the same time that they closely resembled each
other, both in their structure and in the ritual celebrated at
them.[126] According to him, a _marae_ was a sort of domestic chapel,
the possession of which constituted the most distinctive mark of a noble
family. Every chief, high or low, had one of them and took rank
according to its antiquity.[127] It was an oblong area, open to the sky
and enclosed by walls on three sides and by a pyramid on the fourth:
walls and pyramid alike were built of blocks of stone or coral.[128] The
_ahu_, on the other hand, was a monument erected to the memory of a
distinguished chief, whose mortal remains were deposited in it. But
apart from the grave which it contained, the _ahu_, according to
Baessler, hardly differed from a _marae_, though it was mostly larger:
it was a great walled enclosure with a pyramid, altars, and houses of
the priests. And the ritual celebrated in the _ahu_ resembled the ritual
performed in the _marae_: there, too, the faithful assembled to pray,
and there the priests recited the same liturgy.[129] Thus both the form
and, to some extent at least, the function of the two types of sanctuary
presented a close similarity. The islanders themselves, it appears, do
not always clearly distinguish them at the present day.[130] And the
single distinction on which Baessler insisted, that the dead were buried
in the _ahu_ but not in the _marae_, seems not to hold good universally,
even on Baessler's own showing. For he admits that, "if ever a chief was
buried in his own _marae_, it must have been in most exceptional cases,
but probably statements to that effect rest only on a confusion of the
_marae_ with the _ahu_; such a practice would also run counter to the
habits of the natives, who sought the most secret places for their dead,
and certainly concealed the heads in caves difficult of access and
unknown to others. On the other hand, the _maraes_ of humbler families
may more frequently, if not as a rule, have served as places of
burial."[131] And even in regard to the holiest _marae_, dedicated to
the great god Oro, in the island of Raiatea,[132] Baessler himself cites
a tradition, apparently well authenticated, that a great number of
warriors slain in battle were buried in it.[133] The argument that the
people buried their dead, or at all events their skulls, only in remote
caves among the mountains seems untenable; for according to the evidence
of earlier writers the practice of concealing the bones or the skulls of
the dead in caves was generally, if not always, a precaution adopted in
time of war, to prevent these sacred relics from falling into the hands
of invaders; the regular custom seems to have been to bury the bones in
or near the _marae_ and to keep the skulls either there or in the
house.[134] On the whole, then, it is perhaps safer to follow earlier
and, from the nature of the case, better-informed writers in neglecting
the distinction which Baessler drew between a _marae_ (_morai_) and an
_ahu_. In any case we have Baessler's testimony that an _ahu_ was at
once a place of burial and a place of worship. There seems to be no
evidence that any of these sacred edifices, whether _maraes_ or _ahus_,
were associated with a worship of the sun. On the other hand, it is
certain that some at least of them were dedicated, partly or chiefly, to
a cult of the dead, which formed a very important element in the
religion of the Society Islanders, whereas there is little or nothing to
show that they adored either the sun, or any other of the heavenly
bodies, with the possible exception of the moon.[135] This did not,
however, prevent them from entertaining absurd notions concerning these
great luminaries. At an eclipse they imagined that the moon or the sun
was being swallowed by some god whom they had offended; and on such
occasions they repaired to the temple and offered prayers and liberal
presents to the deity for the purpose of inducing him to disgorge the
luminary.[136]
[125] A. Baessler, _Neue Suedsee-Bilder_, pp. 116 _sq._, 127
_sq._, 144 _sq._
[126] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ pp. 130, 131.
[127] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ p. 119.
[128] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ pp. 117 _sq._
[129] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ pp. 130 _sq._
[130] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ p. 140.
[131] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ p. 127.
[132] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ pp. 124, 141.
[133] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ pp. 127 _sq._, 144 _sq._
[134] See below, p. 311.
[135] Ellis says, "I am not aware that they rendered divine
homage either to the sun or moon" (_Polynesian Researches_, iii.
171). Speaking of the Areois, Moerenhout says that "it seems to
me clear that though they did not adore directly the sun and the
other stars, nevertheless their worship was little else than
sabeism or the adoration of the visible and animated universe"
(_op. cit._ i. 503). He interpreted both Oro and Maui or Mahoui
(as he spells the name) as the sun-god (_op. cit._ i. 484, 502,
503, 560 _sq._); but these interpretations appear to be his own
guesses, unsupported by any statement of the natives. Maui was
the great Polynesian hero, one of whose most famous exploits was
catching the sun in a snare and compelling him to move more
slowly (E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_,
pp. 234 _sqq._, _s.v._ "Maui"; see above, p. 275); but this
story, far from favouring the identification of Maui with the
sun, seems fatal to it. According to J. R. Forster, the great
god Taroa (Taaroa) was thought to have created the sun and to
dwell in it (_Observations_, p. 540); but even if this statement
is correct, it hardly implies a worship of the sun. With regard
to the moon, the same writer tells us (_l.c._) that it was
supposed to be procreated by a goddess named O-Heena, "who
presides in the black cloud which appears in this luminary"; and
the statement is repeated by his son, George Forster, who adds:
"The women sing a short couplet, which seems to be an act of
adoration paid to that divinity [O-Heena], perhaps because they
suppose her to have some influence upon their physical
[oe]conomy.... 'The cloud within the moon, that cloud I love'"
(_Voyage round the World_, ii. 152). This so far seems to imply
a reverence for the moon; and there are some grounds for
thinking that O-Heena or Hina (as the name is usually spelt) was
in Eastern Polynesia a moon-goddess. See above, p. 267, note^2.
[136] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 331 _sq._, iii. 171. According to
another account, the sun and moon in eclipse were supposed to be
in the act of copulation. See J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 346.
Temples such as have been described were erected on all important
occasions, such as a war, a decisive victory, or the installation of a
great chief or king of a whole island. In these latter cases the natives
boasted that the number of persons present was so great that, if each of
them only brought a single stone, the amount of stones thus collected
would have sufficed to build their largest temples and pyramids.[137]
One of the occasions when it became necessary to build new temples was
when the old ones had been overthrown by enemies in war. After such a
desecration it was customary to perform a ceremony for the purpose of
purifying the land from the defilement which it had incurred through the
devastations of the foe, who had, perhaps, demolished the temples,
destroyed or mutilated the idols, and burned with fire the curiously
carved pieces of wood which marked the sacred places of interment and
represented the spirits of the dead (_tiis_). Before the rite of
purification was performed the temples were rebuilt, new altars reared,
new images placed within the sacred precincts, and new wooden effigies
set up near the graves. At the close of the rites in the new temples,
the worshippers repaired to the seashore, where the chief priest offered
a short prayer and the people dragged a net of coco-nut leaves through a
shallow part of the sea, usually detaching small pieces of coral, which
they brought ashore. These were called fish and were delivered to the
priest, who conveyed them to the temple and deposited them on the altar,
offering at the same time a prayer to induce the gods to cleanse the
land from pollution, that it might be as pure as the coral fresh from
the sea. It was now thought safe to abide on the soil and to eat of its
produce, whereas if the ceremony had not been performed, death would
have been, in the opinion of the people, the consequence of partaking of
fruits grown on the defiled land.[138]
[137] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 468.
[138] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 348 _sq._
The temples were sacred. When a man approached one of them to worship or
to bring his offering to the altar, he bared his body to the waist in
sign of reverence and humility.[139] Women in general might not enter a
temple, but when their presence was indispensable for certain
ceremonies, the ground was covered with cloth, on which they walked,
lest they should defile the holy place with their feet.[140] For
example, some six weeks or two months after the birth of a child the
father and mother took the child to a temple, where they both offered
their blood to the gods by cutting their heads with shark's teeth and
allowing the blood to drip on leaves, which they laid on the altar. On
this occasion the husband spread a cloth on the floor of the temple for
his wife to tread upon, for she might not step on the ground or the
pavement.[141] Similarly at marriage bride and bridegroom visited the
family temple (_marae_, _morai_), where the skulls of their ancestors
were brought out and placed before them; but a large white cloth had to
be spread out on the pavement for the bride to walk upon. Sometimes at
these marriage rites the female relatives cut their faces and brows with
shark's teeth, caught the flowing blood on cloth, and deposited the
cloth, sprinkled with the mingled blood of the mothers of the married
pair, at the feet of the bride.[142] At other times the mother of the
bride gashed her own person cruelly with a shark's tooth, and having
filled a coco-nut basin with the blood which flowed from her wounds, she
presented it to the bridegroom, who immediately threw it from him.[143]
While certain festivals were being celebrated at the temples the
exclusion of women from them was still more rigid. Thus in the island of
Huahine, during the celebration of the great annual festival, at which
all the idols of the island were brought from their various shrines to
the principal temple to be clothed with new dresses and ornaments, no
woman was allowed to approach any of the sacred edifices under pain of
death, which was instantly inflicted by whoever witnessed the sacrilege.
Even if the wives and children of the priests themselves came within a
certain distance, while some particular services were going on, they
were murdered on the spot by their husbands and fathers with the utmost
ferocity.[144]
[139] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 224; J. R. Forster, _Observations
made during a Voyage round the World_, p. 547; J. A. Moerenhout,
_op. cit._ i. 469. Elsewhere (vi. 149) Captain Cook mentions
that the baring of the body on the approach to a temple was
especially incumbent on women, who otherwise had to make a
considerable circuit to avoid the sacred edifice.
[140] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 469 _sq._; A. Baessler,
_Neue Suedsee-Bilder_, pp. 126 _sq._
[141] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 536 _sq._
[142] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 271 _sq._
[143] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 558.
[144] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 267 _sq._
Some of these sacred edifices are still impressive in their ruins and
deserve the name of megalithic monuments. Thus the temple (_marae_,
_morai_) of Oro at Opoa, which was the holiest temple in the island of
Raiatea and perhaps in the Society Islands generally,[145] is about a
hundred and thirty-eight feet long by twenty-six feet broad. It is
enclosed by a wall of gigantic coral blocks standing side by side to a
height of about six feet seven inches. The blocks have been hewn from
the inner reef; the outer surfaces were smoothed, the inner left rough.
One of the blocks stands over eleven feet high, without reckoning the
part concealed by the soil; it is twelve feet wide, by two and a half
feet thick. Another block is about ten feet long by eight feet broad and
one foot thick.[146] In the ruined temple of Tainuu, situated in the
district of Tevaitoa, one block is about eleven and a half feet high by
eleven feet wide, with a thickness varying from twenty inches to two and
a half feet.[147]
[145] A. Baessler, _Neue Suedsee-Bilder_, pp. 124, 141; D.
Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 529 _sq._
[146] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ p. 142.
[147] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ p. 146.
The idols or images of the gods were usually made of wood, but sometimes
of stone. Some were rudely carved in human shape; others were rough
unpolished logs, wrapped in many folds of cloth or covered with a
matting of coco-nut fibre.[148] The image of the god Oro was a straight
log of casuarina wood, six feet long, uncarved, but decorated with
feathers. On the other hand Taaroa, the supreme deity of Polynesia, was
represented by a rudely carved human figure about four feet high, with a
number of little images studding his body to indicate the multitude of
gods that had proceeded from him as creator. The body of the god was
hollow, and when it was taken from the temple, where it had been
worshipped for many generations, it was found to contain a number of
small idols in the cavity. It is supposed that these petty gods had been
placed there by their worshippers and owners that they might absorb some
of the supernatural powers of the greater divinity before being removed
to the places where they were to commence deities on their own
account.[149] With a similar intention it was customary to fill the
inside of the hollow images with red feathers in order that the plumes
might be impregnated with the divine influence and might afterwards
diffuse it for the benefit of the owner of the feathers, who had placed
them in the image for that purpose. The red feathers, plucked from a
small bird which is found in many of the islands, thus became an
ordinary medium for communicating and extending supernatural powers, not
only in the Society Islands, but throughout Polynesia. The beautiful
long tail-feathers of the tropic or man-of-war bird were used for the
same purpose. The gods were supposed to be very fond of these feathers
and ready to impart their blessed essence to them. Hence people brought
the feathers to the priest and received from him in exchange two or
three which had been sanctified in the stomach of the deity; on
extracting them from that receptacle, the priest prayed to the god that
he would continue to inhabit the red feathers even when they were
detached from his divine person.[150] The feathers thus consecrated were
themselves regarded as in some sense divine and were called gods
(_atuas_, _oromatuas_); the people had great confidence in their
sovereign virtue, and on occasions of danger they sought them out,
believing that the mere presence of the feathers would afford them
adequate protection. For example, when they were threatened by a storm
at sea, they would hold out the feathers to the menacing clouds and
command them to depart.[151]
[148] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 337 _sq._; J. A. Moerenhout, _op.
cit._ i. 471. According to Ellis, the wooden images were made
from the durable timber of the _aito_ or casuarina tree, and the
stone images were mostly rude uncarved angular columns of
basalt, of various sizes, though some were of calcareous or
siliceous stone. Some stone images, however, were rudely carved
in human form. See A. Baessler, _Neue Suedsee-Bilder_, pp. 128
_sq._
[149] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 354.
[150] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 338 _sq._; J. A. Moerenhout, _op.
cit._ i. 471 _sqq._
[151] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 473 _sq._
Sec. 5. _The Sacrifices, Priests, and Sacred Recorders_
The offerings presented to the gods included every kind of valuable
property, such as birds, fish, beasts, the fruits of the earth and the
choicest native manufactures. The fruits and other eatables were
generally, but not always, dressed. Portions of the fowls, pigs, or
fish, cooked with sacred fire in the temple, were presented to the
deity; the remainder furnished a banquet for the priests and other
sacred persons, who were privileged to eat of the sacrifices. The
portions appropriated to the gods were placed on the altar and left
there till they decayed. In the public temples the great altars were
wooden stages, some eight or ten feet high, supported on a number of
wooden posts, which were sometimes curiously carved and polished. But
there were also smaller altars in the temples; some of them were like
round tables, resting on a single post. Domestic altars and such as were
erected near the bodies of dead friends were small square structures of
wicker-work. In sacrificing pigs they were very anxious not to break a
bone or disfigure the animal. Hence they used to strangle the animal or
bleed it to death.[152]
[152] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 344 _sq._
Human victims were sacrificed on many occasions, as in time of war, at
great national festivals, during the illness of their rulers, and at
the building of a temple. William Ellis was told that the foundations of
some of their sacred edifices were laid in human sacrifices, and that at
least the central pillar, which supported the roof of one of the sacred
houses at Maeva, had been planted on the body of a man. The victims were
either captives taken in war or persons who had rendered themselves
obnoxious to the chiefs or the priests. In the technical language of the
priests they were called "fish." When once a man had been chosen for
sacrifice, the family to which he belonged was regarded as taboo or
devoted to the altar, and when another victim was wanted, he was more
frequently taken from that family than from any other. Similarly, a
district which had once furnished victims was thenceforth devoted.
Hence, at the approach of ceremonies which were usually accompanied by
human sacrifices, the members of certain families and the inhabitants of
certain districts used to flee to the mountains and hide in caves till
the ceremony was over. But the doomed man was seldom apprised of his
fate beforehand. A sudden blow with a club or a stone on the nape of the
neck was the usual way of despatching him, lest the body should be
mangled or a bone broken. If the blow had only stunned him, he was soon
killed, and the corpse, placed in a long basket of coco-nut leaves, was
carried to the temple and offered to the god by being set before the
idol. In dedicating it the priest took out one of the eyes and handed it
on a leaf to the king, who made as if he would swallow it, but passed it
on to a priest or attendant. After the ceremony the body, still wrapt in
coco-nut leaves, was often deposited on the branches of a neighbouring
tree, where it remained some time. Finally, the bones were taken down
and buried under the pavement of the temple (_marae_).[153]
[153] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 345-348. Compare J. Cook,
_Voyages_, iii. 168 _sqq._ vi. 28-41; J. Wilson, _op. cit._ pp.
350 _sq._; D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 549, ii. 38
_sq._
In the family, according to patriarchal usage, the father was the
priest, but the priests of the national temples formed a distinct class;
their office was hereditary. The high priesthood was often held by a
member of the royal family, and sometimes the king himself acted as the
national priest. The duties of the priests were to recite prayers, to
present offerings, and to sacrifice victims. Their prayers, usually
uttered in shrill, chanting tones, were often exceedingly long and full
of repetitions.[154] They had plenty of employment, being called in to
officiate on all occasions, whether at birth or at death, at feasts or
in sickness; for they were the physicians as well as the clergy of the
country. They professed to possess extraordinary powers, such as to
promote conception or to effect abortion, to cause or to heal disease,
to pray the evil spirit into food, and even to kill men outright. Hence
they were greatly feared.[155] Of the little knowledge that existed in
the islands the priests are reported to have possessed the largest
share, but it consisted chiefly in an acquaintance with the names and
ranks of the various subordinate deities (_atuas_); however, according
to Captain Cook, they excelled the rest of the people in their knowledge
of navigation and astronomy: indeed, the very name for priest (_tahowa_)
signified nothing more than a man of knowledge.[156] In the island of
Huahine the priest whose duty it was to carry the image of the god Tani
(Tane) "was a personage of such superhuman sanctity that everything
which he touched became sacred; he was, therefore, not suffered to
marry, as the honour of being his wife was too much for any mortal
woman. But this was not all; he would himself be so defiled by such a
connection that he would be disqualified for his office, and must
immediately resign it; nay, if he did not repent, and return with a
great peace-offering to Tani's house, he might expect to be first struck
blind, and afterwards strangled in his sleep. He was not allowed to
climb a cocoa tree, because, if he did, it would be so hallowed that
nobody else durst afterwards ascend it."[157]
[154] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 342 _sq._ Compare J. R. Forster,
_Observations made during a Voyage round the World_, pp. 545
_sqq._; J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 474 _sqq._
[155] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 348.
[156] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 223.
[157] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 279.
One of the most important functions of the priests was to act as
mouthpieces of the gods. In the discharge of this duty they were
believed to be inspired and possessed by the deity, who spoke through
them to the people. When the time came for them to consult the god, they
assumed an odd fantastic dress, enriched with red and black feathers,
to which the deity was so partial, that when the priests approached him
in this array, he descended to earth at their call in one of the sacred
birds that frequented the temples (_morais_) and fed on the sacrifices.
As soon as the bird lighted on the sacred edifice, the god left the fowl
and entered into the priest. The holy man, thus inspired, now stretched
himself, yawned, and rubbed his arms, legs, and body, which began to be
inflated, as if the skin of the abdomen would burst; the eyes of the
seer were thrown into various contortions, now staring wide, now
half-shut and sinking into stupor, while at other times the whole frame
was convulsed and appeared to have undergone a sudden and surprising
change. The voice sank to a low pitch, and grew squeaky and broken; but
at times it would suddenly rise to an astonishing height. The words
uttered by the possessed man were regarded as oracular, and nothing that
he asked for the god or for himself in this state was ever refused him.
Of all this the priest himself affected to be entirely unaware, but a
colleague was regularly at hand to record the divine message and the
divine requirements, which were often very large. When the deity took
his departure from the priest, he did so with such convulsions and
violence as to leave the man lying motionless and exhausted on the
ground, and the oracle was so timed that this happened at the very
moment when the sacred bird, the vehicle of the god, flew away from the
temple. On coming to himself the priest uttered a loud shriek and seemed
to wake as from a profound sleep, unconscious of everything that had
passed.[158] Sometimes, however, the priest continued to be possessed by
the deity for two or three days; at such times he wore a piece of native
cloth, of a peculiar sort, round one arm as a sign of his inspiration.
His acts during this period were deemed to be those of the god; hence
the greatest attention was paid to his expressions and to the whole of
his deportment. Indeed, so long as the fit of inspiration lasted he was
called a god (_atua_); but when it was over, he resumed his ordinary
title of priest.[159]
[158] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ pp. 349 _sq._
[159] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 373-375.
We are told that in his fine frenzy the priest "often rolled on the
earth, foaming at the mouth, as if labouring under the influence of the
divinity, by whom he was possessed, and, in shrill cries, and violent
and often indistinct sounds, revealed the will of the god."[160] It
would probably be a mistake to assume that on such occasions the frantic
behaviour was deliberately assumed and the wild whirling words were
consciously uttered for the purpose of deceiving the people; in short,
that the whole performance was a mere piece of acting, a bare-faced
imposture. It is far more likely that, bred from childhood to believe in
the reality of divine inspiration, the priest often sincerely imagined
himself to be possessed by a deity, and that, under the excitement which
such an imagination was calculated to produce, he honestly mistook his
own thick-coming fancies for a revelation from the gods. A chief, who
had formerly been a prophet of the god Oro, assured the missionaries
"that although he sometimes feigned his fits of inspiration, to deceive
the credulous multitude, yet, at other times, they came upon him
involuntarily and irresistibly. Something seemed to rush through his
whole frame, and overpower his spirit, in a manner which he could not
describe. Then he frothed at the mouth, gnashed his teeth, and distorted
his limbs with such violence that it required five or six strong men to
hold him. At these times his words were deemed oracles, and whatever he
advised respecting state affairs, or other matters, was implicitly
observed by king and chiefs."[161] Thus on the ravings of these crazy
fanatics or deliberate impostors often hung the issues of life or death,
of war or peace.[162] It appears to have been especially the priests of
Oro who laid claim to inspiration and contrived to shape the destinies
of their country through the powerful sway which they exercised over the
mind of the king. In their fits of fanatical frenzy, while they
delivered their oracles, they insisted on the sovereign's implicit
compliance with their mandates, denouncing the most dreadful judgments
on him if he should prove refractory.[163]
[160] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 373 _sq._
[161] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 124.
[162] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 114 _sq._
[163] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 121.
Apart from the priests there was a class of men whose business it was to
preserve and hand down to their successors the lists of the gods, the
liturgical prayers, and the sacred traditions. As these liturgies and
legends were often very lengthy and couched in a metaphorical and
obscure language, a prodigious memory and long practice were
indispensable for their preservation and transmission among a people to
whom the art of writing was unknown. Since the slightest mistake in the
recitation of a liturgy was deemed the worst of omens and necessitated
the suspension of the religious service, however costly and important
the service might be, the sacred recorders, as we may call them, were
obliged, for the sake of their credit, to practise continually the
recitation of the prayers, legends, and traditions of which they were
the depositories. To aid them in their task they made use of bundles of
little sticks of different sizes, one of which they drew from a bundle
at the conclusion of each prayer. It was their duty on solemn occasions
to recite these liturgies or sacred poems while they paced slowly by
night round the temples (_morais_) and other holy places; hence they
went by the name of _harepo_, which means "Walkers by night." We are
told that if at these times they made a mistake in a single word or
hesitated for a moment, they stopped and returned home; and if the
subject of their prayers chanced to be some enterprise in which they
desired to enlist the favour of the gods, such a mistake or hesitation
was enough to cause the undertaking to be abandoned irretrievably, since
success in it was believed to be impossible. Nothing, it is said, could
be more astonishing than the memory displayed by these men, while they
recited, word for word, and for nights together, the ancient traditions
of which the mutilated and mangled remains would demand the assiduous
study of several years. The office of sacred recorder (_harepo_) was
hereditary in the male line; the sons were trained in the duties from
their earliest years, but only such as were endowed with an excellent
memory could satisfy the requirements of the profession. They believed
that a good memory was a gift of the gods.[164]
[164] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 504-507.
Sec. 6. _The Doctrine of the Human Soul_
Of the Society Islanders we are informed that "they believe every man to
have a separate being within him, named _tee_, which acts in consequence
of the impression of the senses, and combines ideas into thoughts. This
being, which we would call the soul, exists after death, and lodges in
the wooden images which are placed round the burying-places, and which
are called by the same name, _tee_."[165] When they were asked in what
part of the body the soul resides, they always answered that it was
seated in the belly or in the bowels (_I roto te obou_). They would not
admit that the brain could be the seat of thought or the heart of the
affections; and in support of their opinion they alleged the agitation
of the bowels in strong emotion, such as fear and desire.[166] Hence,
too, they called thoughts by a phrase which signifies "words in the
belly" (_parou no te oboo_).[167]
[165] G. Forster, _Voyage round the World_, ii. 151 _sq._
Compare J. R. Forster, _Observations made during a Voyage round
the World_, pp. 534 _sq._, 542 _sq._, where the word for soul is
given as _E-teehee_ or _Teehee_.
[166] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 431.
[167] G. Forster, _op. cit._ ii. 151 note *.
But the Society Islanders did not regard the possession of a soul as a
privilege peculiar to humanity. According to Captain Cook, "they
maintain that not only all other animals, but trees, fruit, and even
stones, have souls, which at death, or upon being consumed or broken,
ascend to the divinity, with whom they first mix, and afterwards pass
into the mansion allotted to each."[168] Their word for soul was
_varoua_, according to Moerenhout, who adds that, "It appears that they
accorded this _varoua_ (spirit, soul) not only to man, but even in
addition to the animals, to plants, to everything that vegetates, grows
or moves on the earth."[169]
[168] J. Cook, _op. cit._ vi. 151.
[169] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 430.
They thought that the soul of man could be separated for a time from the
body during life without causing immediate death. Thus, like many other
peoples, they explained dreams by the supposed absence of the soul
during slumber. We are told that "they put great confidence in dreams,
and suppose in sleep the soul leaves the body under the care of the
guardian angel, and moves at large through the regions of spirits. Thus
they say, My soul was such a night in such a place, and saw such a
spirit. When a person dies, they say his soul is fled away, _h[=a]rre
p[=o]_, gone to night."[170] But they also believed that a man's soul or
spirit could be conjured out of his body by magic art or demoniacal
agency. Thus, when people had been robbed, they would sometimes call in
the help of a priest to ascertain the thief. In such a case the priest,
after offering prayers to his demon, would direct them to dig a hole in
the floor of the house and to fill it with water; then, taking a young
plantain in his hand, he would stand over the hole and pray to the god,
whom he invoked, and who, if he were propitious, was supposed to conduct
the spirit of the thief to the house and to place it over the water. The
image of the spirit, which they believed to resemble the person of the
man, was, according to their account, reflected in the water and
perceived by the priest, who was thus able to identify the thief,
alleging that the god had shown him the reflection of the culprit in the
water.[171] From this it appears that in the opinion of the Society
Islanders, as of many other peoples, a man's soul or spirit is a
faithful image of his body.[172]
[170] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 346. In the Polynesian languages
_po_ is the word both for "night" and for "the shades," the
primaeval darkness from which all forms of life were evolved,
and to which the souls of the dead return. See E. Tregear,
_Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, p. 342, _s.v._ "po."
[171] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 378 _sq._
[172] Compare W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 396, "What their precise
ideas of a spirit were, it is not easy to ascertain. They
appear, however, to have imagined the shape or form resembled
that of the human body, in which they sometimes appeared in
dreams to the survivors."
They believed that in the pangs of death the soul keeps fluttering about
the lips, and that, when all is over, it ascends and mixes with or, as
they expressed it, is eaten by the deity.[173] When one of their sacred
recorders (_harepo_), who had been famous in his life for his knowledge
of the ancient traditions, was at the point of death, it was customary
for his son and successor to place his mouth over the mouth of the dying
man, as if to inhale the parting soul at the moment of quitting the
body; for in this way he was supposed to inherit the lore of his father.
The natives, it is said, were convinced that these sages owed their
learning to this expedient, though none the less they studied day and
night to perfect themselves in their profession.[174]
[173] J. Cook, _op. cit._ vi. 150.
[174] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 507.
Sec. 7. _Disease, Death, and Mourning_
Every disease was supposed to be the result of direct supernatural
agency, and to be inflicted by the gods for some crime committed against
the law of taboo of which the sufferer had been guilty; or it might have
been brought upon him by an enemy, who had compassed his destruction by
means of an offering. They explained death in like manner: according to
them, it was invariably caused by the direct influence of the gods.[175]
They acknowledged, indeed, that they possessed poisons which, taken with
food, produced convulsions and death, but these effects they traced to
the anger of the gods, who employed the drugs as their material agents
or secondary causes. Even when a man was killed in battle, they still
saw in his death the hand of a god, who had actually entered into the
weapon that inflicted the fatal blow.[176]
[175] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 395; J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._
i. 433, 538 _sqq._
[176] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 395 _sq._
The gods who were thus supposed to afflict human life with sickness and
disease and to bring it to an untimely termination in death were not
always nor perhaps usually the high primaeval deities; often they were
the souls of the dead, who ranked among the domestic divinities
(_oromatuas_). And, like the Maoris,[177] the natives of the Society
Islands are said to have stood in particular fear of the souls of dead
infants, who, angered at their mother for their too early death, took
their revenge by sending sickness on the surviving members of the
family. Hence when a woman was ill-treated by her husband, she would
often threaten to insult the ghost of a dead baby; and this threat, with
the deplorable consequences which it was calculated to entail, seldom
failed to bring the husband to a better frame of mind; or if he happened
to prove recalcitrant, the other members of the family, who might be
involved in the calamity, would intercede and restore peace in the
household. Thus we are told that among these islanders the fear of the
dead supplied in some measure the place of natural affection and
tenderness in softening and humanising the general manners.[178]
[177] See above, p. 49.
[178] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 538 _sq._
Disease and death were also attributed to the malignant charms of
sorcerers, who, hired by an enemy of the sufferer, procured for the
purpose the clipped hair or the spittle of their intended victim, the
flowers or garment he had worn, or any object which had touched his
person. But the real agents who were thought to give effect to the
charms were the minor deities, whom the sorcerer employed to accomplish
his nefarious ends. For this purpose he put the hair or other personal
refuse of the victim in a bag along with the images and symbols of the
petty divinities, and buried the bag and its contents in a hole which he
had dug in the ground. There he left it until, applying his ear to the
hole, he could hear the soul of the sufferer whimpering down below,
which proved that the charm was taking effect. If the intended victim
got wind of these machinations, it was always in his power to render
them abortive, either by sacrificing to the gods or by sending a present
to the sorcerer, who thus was feed by both sides at the same time.[179]
[179] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 539-541. Compare W. Ellis,
_op. cit._ i. 363 _sqq._
However, most cases of sickness apparently were set down not to the
wiles of sorcerers, but to the displeasure of the deified spirits of the
dead.[180] On this point the evidence of the early missionaries is
explicit. Speaking of the Society Islanders, they say that "they regard
the spirits of their ancestors, male and female, as exalted into
_eatooas_ [_atuas_, deities], and their favour to be secured by prayers
and offerings. Every sickness and untoward accident they esteem as the
hand of judgment for some offence committed; and therefore, if they have
injured any person, they send their peace-offering, and make the matter
up: and if sick, send for the priest to offer up prayers and sacrifices
to pacify the offended _eatooa_; giving anything the priests ask, as
being very reluctant to die."[181] "As it is their fixed opinion, that
no disease affects them but as a punishment inflicted by their _eatooa_
[_atua_] for some offence, and never brought on themselves by
intemperance or imprudence, they trust more to the prayers of their
priests than to any medicine."[182]
[180] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 543.
[181] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 345.
[182] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 404.
They imagined that at death the soul (_varua_) was drawn out of the head
by a god or spirit (_atua_) as a sword is drawn out of its scabbard, and
that the spirits of the dead often waited to catch it at the moment when
it issued from the body. Sometimes the dying man would fancy that he saw
the spirits lurking for him at the foot of the bed, and would cry out in
terror, "They are waiting for my spirit. Guard it! Preserve it from
them!"[183]
[183] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 396.
When the last struggle was over, a priest or diviner (_tahua tutera_)
was called in to ascertain the cause of death. For this purpose he
entered his canoe and paddled slowly along on the sea, near the house in
which the dead body was lying, in order to watch the passage of the
departing spirit; for they thought that it would fly towards him with
the emblem of the cause through which the person had died. If he had
been cursed by the gods, the spirit would appear with a flame, fire
being the agent employed in the incantations of the sorcerers, who had
presumably drawn down the curse upon the deceased. If some enemy had
bribed the gods to kill him, the spirit would come with a red feather,
as a sign that evil spirits had entered into his food. After a short
time the diviner returned to the house, announced the cause of death to
the survivors, and received his fee, the amount of which was regulated
by the circumstances of the family. After that a priest was employed to
perform ceremonies and recite prayers for the purpose of averting
destruction from the surviving members of the family; but the nature of
the ceremonies has not been recorded.[184]
[184] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 398 _sq._
When it was manifest that death was approaching, the relatives and
friends, who had gathered round the sufferer, broke into loud
lamentations and other demonstrations of sorrow, which redoubled in
violence as soon as the spirit had departed. Then they not only wailed
in the loudest and most affecting tone, but tore out their hair, rent
their garments, and cut themselves with shark's teeth or knives in a
shocking manner. The instrument usually employed was a small cane, about
four inches long, with five or six teeth fixed into it on opposite
sides. Struck forcibly into the head, these instruments wounded it like
a lancet, so that the blood poured down in copious streams. Every woman
at marriage provided herself with one of these implements and used it
unsparingly on herself on the occasion of a death in the family. Some
people, not content with this instrument of torture, provided themselves
with a sort of mallet armed with two or three rows of shark's teeth; and
with this formidable weapon, on the demise of a relative or friend, they
hammered themselves unmercifully, striking their skulls, temples,
cheeks, and breast, till the blood flowed profusely from the wounds. At
the same time they uttered the most deafening and agonising cries; and
what with their frantic gestures, the distortion of their countenances,
their torn and dishevelled hair, and the mingled tears and blood that
trickled down their bodies, they presented altogether a horrible
spectacle. This self-inflicted cruelty was practised chiefly by women,
but not by them alone; for the men on these occasions committed the like
enormities, and not only cut themselves, but came armed with clubs and
other deadly weapons, which they sometimes plied freely on the bodies of
other people. These dismal scenes began with the nearest relatives of
the deceased, but they were not confined to them. No sooner did the
tidings spread, and the sound of wailing was heard throughout the
neighbourhood, than friends and kinsfolk flocked to the spot and joined
in the demonstrations of real or affected sorrow. The pageant of woe
reached its climax when the deceased was a king or a principal chief. It
was then, above all, that the tenants and retainers came armed with
bludgeons and stones, with which they fought each other till some of
them were wounded or slain; while others operated on themselves by
tearing their hair and lacerating their bodies in the usual manner till
their bodies were bedabbled with blood. After the introduction of
firearms into the islands, these lethal weapons lent variety and noise
to the combats, as well as adding to the number of the slain. At the
death of a person of distinction these exhibitions of frenzied sorrow
sometimes lasted two or three days in succession, or even longer.[185]
On such occasions a body of armed men, composed of friends and allies,
used to arrive from a neighbouring district and request to be allowed
access to the body of the chief, in order that they might mourn for him
in due form. The request was always refused by the bodyguards, who kept
the last vigil over their departed lord; and in consequence a fight
ensued in which several warriors were generally wounded or killed. Yet
it was only a sham fight, which seems to have always ended in a victory
for the mourners who had come from a distance; and when it was over,
victors and vanquished regularly united in performing the usual
sanguinary rites of mourning. In all the islands wrestling matches,
combats, and assaults-at-arms were ordinary features of the obsequies of
chiefs.[186]
[185] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 407-409; J. Wilson,
_op. cit._ p. 352; J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 546 _sq._
[186] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 551 _sq._
The blood which women in the paroxysms of grief drew from their bodies,
and the tears which flowed from their eyes, were received on pieces of
cloth, which were then thrown upon or under the bier as oblations to the
dead.[187] Sometimes for this purpose a woman would wear a short apron,
which she held up with one hand, while she cut herself with the other,
till the apron was soaked in blood. Afterwards she would dry it in the
sun and present it to the bereaved family, who kept it as a token of the
estimation in which the departed had been held.[188] Some of the younger
mourners used also to cut off their hair and throw it under the bier
with the other offerings.[189] When the deceased was a child, the
parents, in addition to other tokens of grief, used to cut their hair
short on one part of their heads, leaving the rest long; sometimes they
shaved a square patch on the forehead; sometimes they left the hair on
the forehead and cut off all the rest; at other times they removed all
the hair but a lock over one or both ears; or again they would clip
close one half of the head, while on the other half the tresses were
suffered to grow long; and these signs of mourning might be continued
for two or three years.[190]
[187] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 135, 218; J. R. Forster,
_Observations made during a Voyage round the World_, p. 560.
[188] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 410.
[189] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 218; J. R. Forster, _Observations
made during a Voyage round the World_, p. 560.
[190] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ pp. 352 _sq._
Captain Cook tells us that the custom observed by mourners of offering
their own blood, tears, and hair to their departed relative or friend
"is founded upon a notion that the soul of the deceased, which they
believe to exist in a separate state, is hovering about the place where
the body is deposited: that it observes the actions of the survivors,
and is gratified by such testimonies of their affection and grief."[191]
This explanation, in perfect harmony with the vigilance, vanity, and
jealousy commonly ascribed to ghosts, is in all probability correct. Yet
it deserves to be noticed that the custom of voluntarily hacking the
body with shark's teeth to the effusion of blood was singularly enough
practised by the Society Islanders on occasions of joy as well as of
sorrow. When a husband or a son returned to his family after a season of
absence or exposure to danger, his arrival was greeted, not only with
the cordial welcome and the warm embrace, but with loud wailing, while
the happy wife or mother cut her body with shark's teeth, and the
gladder she was the more she gashed herself.[192] Similarly many savage
peoples weep over long-absent friends, or even over strangers, as a
polite form of greeting in which genuine sorrow can hardly be supposed
to play a part.[193] It is difficult to see how such observances can be
based on superstition; apparently the emotion of joy may express itself
in very different ways in different races.
[191] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 218 _sq._
[192] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 410; J. Wilson, _op. cit._ pp.
196, 362.
[193] See _Folk-lore in the Old Testament_, ii. 82 _sqq._
The natives stood in great fear of the spirits of the dead, which were
supposed to haunt the places of their former abode and to visit the
habitations of men, but seldom on errands of mercy or benevolence. They
woke the survivors from their slumbers by squeaking noises to upbraid
them with their past wickedness or to reproach them with the neglect of
some ceremony, for which the ghosts were compelled to suffer. Thus the
people imagined that they lived in a world of spirits, which surrounded
them night and day, watching every action of their lives and ready to
revenge the smallest slight or the least disobedience to their
injunctions, as these were proclaimed to the living by the priests.
Convulsions and hysterics, for example, were ascribed to the action of
spirits, which seized the sufferer, scratched his face, tore his hair,
or otherwise maltreated him.[194]
[194] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 406.
This fear of the spirits of the dead induced the Society Islanders to
resort to some peculiar ceremonies for the protection of the living
against the ghosts of persons who had recently died. One of these quaint
rites was performed by a priest, who went by the name of the
"corpse-praying priest" (_tahua bure tiapa-pau_). When the corpse had
been placed on a platform or bier in a temporary house, this priest
ordered a hole to be dug in the earth or floor, near the foot of the
platform, and over this hole he prayed to the god by whom the spirit of
the deceased had been summoned to its long home. The purport of the
prayer was that all the dead man's sins, and especially that for which
his soul had been called to the region of Night (_po_), should be
deposited in that hole, that they should not attach in any degree to the
survivors, and that the anger of the god might be appeased. The priest
next addressed the corpse, usually saying, "With you let the guilt now
remain." The pillar or post of the corpse, as it was called, was then
planted in the hole, earth was thrown over the guilt of the departed,
and the hole filled up. After that, the priest proceeded to the side of
the corpse, and taking some small slips of plantain leaf-stalk he fixed
two or three of them under each arm, placed a few on the breast, and
then, addressing the dead body, said, "There are your family, there is
your child, there is your wife, there is your father, and there is your
mother. Be satisfied yonder (that is, in the world of spirits). Look not
towards those who are left in this world." The concluding parts of the
ceremony were designed to impart contentment to the deceased, and to
prevent his spirit from repairing to the places of his former resort,
and so distressing the survivors. This was considered a most important
ceremony, being a kind of mass for the dead and necessary as well for
the peace of the living as for the quiet of the departed. It was seldom
omitted by any who could pay the priest his usual fees, which for this
service generally took the form of pigs and cloth, in proportion to the
rank or possessions of the family.[195]
[195] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 401-403. Compare J. A. Moerenhout,
_op. cit._ i. 552.
Soon after the decease of a chief or person of distinction, another
singular ceremony, called a _heva_, was performed by the relatives or
dependants, who personated the ghost of the departed. The principal
actor in the procession was a priest or kinsman who wore a curious dress
and an imposing head-ornament called a _parae_. A cap or turban of thick
native cloth was fitted close to the head; in front were two broad
mother-of-pearl shells that covered the face like a mask, with only a
small aperture through which the wearer could look in order to find his
way. Above the mask were fixed a number of long, white, red-tipped
feathers of the tropic bird, diverging like rays and forming a radiant
circle; while beneath the mask was a thin yet strong board curved like a
crescent, from which hung a sort of network of small pieces of brilliant
mother-of-pearl, finely polished and strung together on threads. The
depth of this network varied according to the taste or means of the
family, but it was generally nine inches or a foot, and might consist of
ten to fifteen or twenty perfectly straight and parallel rows. The
labour of making this mother-of-pearl pendant must have been immense;
for many hundred pieces of the shell had to be cut, ground down to the
requisite thinness, polished and perforated, without the use of iron
tools, before a single line could be fixed upon the head-dress. Fringed
with feathers, the pendant formed a kind of ornamental breastplate or
stomacher. Attached to it was a garment composed of alternate stripes of
black and yellow cloth, which enveloped the body and reached sometimes
to the loins, to the knees, or even to the ankles.[196] On his back the
masker wore an ample cloak or mantle of network covered with glossy
pigeon's feathers of a bluish colour. The costume appears to have been
intended as a disguise to prevent the spectators from recognising the
wearer; for George Forster, who has given us an elaborate description of
it, observes that "an ample hood of alternate parallel stripes of brown,
yellow, and white cloth descends from the turban to cover the neck and
shoulders, in order that as little as possible of the human figure may
appear."[197]
[196] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 412 _sq._ Compare J. Cook,
_Voyages_, i. 135 _sq._, 138, 219; J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._
i. 547-549.
[197] G. Forster, _Voyage round the World_, ii. 74. For the full
description of the garb, see _id._, ii. 71-75; J. R. Forster,
_Observations made during a Voyage round the World_, pp.
450-453.
In this strange garb the chief mummer, who was usually the nearest
relation of the deceased, carried in one hand a formidable weapon,
consisting of a staff about five feet long, one end of which was rounded
to serve as a handle, while the other end broadened out into a sort of
scythe, of which the inner or concave side was armed with a row of large
strong shark's teeth fixed in the wood. In the other hand he bore a kind
of clapper formed of two pearl-oyster shells, beautifully polished. Thus
attired and equipped, he led a procession either from the house of the
deceased, or, according to another account, from a valley to which, as
if under a paroxysm of grief, the party had retired at the death of the
person for whom the ceremony was performed; and as he walked along he
continued to rattle or jingle the shells against each other to give
notice of his approach. With him walked a number of men and boys, naked
except for a girdle, armed with cudgels, their faces and bodies painted
black, red, and white with charcoal and coloured earths. In this
impressive style the mummers marched through the district, the people
everywhere fleeing in terror at the sight of them, and even deserting
the houses at their approach. For whenever the leader caught sight of
any one, he ran at him, and if he overtook the fugitive, belaboured him
with his sharp-toothed club, to the grievous mauling of the unfortunate
wretch; while, not to be behind their leader, the assistants plied their
bludgeons on the bodies of all and sundry who chanced to fall into their
hands. At such times safety was only to be found in the king's temple,
which served on this as on other occasions as a sort of sanctuary or
place of refuge. Having thus scoured the country, the mummers marched
several times round the platform where the body was exposed, after which
they bathed in a river and resumed their customary apparel. This
performance was repeated at intervals for five moons, but less and less
frequently as the end of the time approached. The longer it lasted, the
greater was the honour supposed to be done to the dead. The relatives
took it in turn to assume the fantastic dress and discharge the office
of leader. Throughout the ceremonies the performers appeared and acted
as if they were deranged. They were supposed to be inspired by, or at
all events to represent, the spirit of the deceased, to revenge any
injury he might have received, or to punish those who had not shown due
respect to his remains.[198] Hence we may infer that the whole of this
quaint masquerade was designed to appease the anger of the ghost, and so
to protect the survivors by preventing him from returning to take
vengeance on them for any wrongs or slights he might have suffered at
their hands.
[198] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 138 _sq._, 219; J. R. Forster,
_Observations made during a Voyage round the World_, pp. 560
_sq._; W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 413 _sq._; J. A. Moerenhout, _op.
cit._ i. 549 _sq._ According to Ellis, the mummers were supposed
to be inspired by the spirit of the deceased; according to
Moerenhout, they were not inspired by, but merely represented,
the ghost. The difference between spiritual representation and
inspiration is somewhat fine; too fine perhaps to be apprehended
by Tahitian intelligence. Forster says that the procession
started from the house of the deceased, Ellis that it started
from a valley.
The same fear of the returning ghost is clearly expressed in a prayer
which the natives used to address to a dead relative at burial. They put
blossoms of bread-fruit and leaves of the edible fern under the arms of
the corpse, and as they did so, they prayed, saying, "You go to the Po
[Night, the World of Shades], plant bread-fruit there, and be food for
the gods; but do not come and strangle us, and we will feed your swine
and cultivate your lands."[199]
[199] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _Journal of Voyages and
Travels_, i. 322.
Sec. 8. _The Disposal of the Dead_
The heat of the climate, by hastening the decomposition of dead bodies,
rendered it necessary that corpses should be speedily removed or treated
so as to preserve them for a time from decay. As such treatment was
generally too costly for the poor and even the middle ranks of society,
families belonging to these classes were usually obliged to inter their
dead on the first or second day after the decease. During the short
intervening period the body, resting on a bed of fragrant green leaves,
was placed on a sort of bier covered with white cloth and decorated with
wreaths and garlands of sweet-smelling flowers. Round it sat the
relatives, giving vent to their grief in loud and continued
lamentations, and often cutting their temples, faces, and breasts with
shark's teeth, till they were covered with blood from their
self-inflicted wounds. The bodies were frequently committed to the grave
in deep silence; but sometimes a father would deliver a pathetic oration
at the funeral of his son.[200] The grave was generally shallow and the
corpse was deposited in a bent posture, with the hands tied to the knees
or to the legs.[201]
[200] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 399 _sq._
[201] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 553 _sq._
But in the families of chiefs the custom was to submit the bodies of the
dead to a sort of embalming and to preserve them above ground for a
time.[202] The Tahitians had a tradition of a rude or unpolished period
in their history, when the bodies of the dead were allowed to remain in
the houses in which they lived, and which were still occupied by the
survivors. A kind of stage or altar was erected in the dwelling, and on
it the corpse was deposited. But in a later and more polished age, which
lasted till the advent of Europeans, the practice was introduced of
building separate houses or sheds for the lodgment of corpses.[203]
[202] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 400.
[203] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 404.
These houses or sheds (_tupapows_) were small temporary buildings, often
neatly constructed. The thatched roof rested on wooden pillars, which
were seldom more than six feet high. The body was laid on a bier or
platform raised on posts about three feet from the ground. This bier was
movable, for the purpose of being drawn out, and of exposing the body to
the rays of the sun. The body was usually clothed or covered with cloth,
and for a long time it was carefully rubbed with aromatic oils once a
day. The size of these charnel-houses varied with the rank of the
persons whose bodies they contained; the better sort were enclosed by
railings. Those which were allotted to people of the lower class just
sufficed to cover the bier, and were not railed in. The largest seen by
Captain Cook was eleven yards long. Such houses were ornamented
according to the taste and abilities of the surviving kindred, who never
failed to lay a profusion of good cloth about the body, and sometimes
almost covered the outside of the house.[204]
[204] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 93 _sq._, 135, 217, 218; J. Wilson,
_op. cit._ pp. 84, 212 _sq._; W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 404; J. A.
Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 547.
But before the corpse was deposited in one of these temporary
structures, it was shrouded in cloth and carried on a bier to the
sea-shore, where it was set down on the beach at the water's edge. There
a priest, who accompanied the procession, renewed the prayers which he
had offered over the body both at the house and on its passage to the
shore. Further, he took up water in his hands and sprinkled it towards
the corpse, but not upon it. These prayers and sprinklings he repeated
several times, and between the repetitions the body was carried back
some forty or fifty yards from the sea, only to be brought back again to
the water's edge. While these ceremonies were being performed, the
temporary house or shed was being prepared, in which the corpse was to
remain until the flesh had wholly wasted from the bones. Thither it was
then carried from the beach and laid upon the bier.[205]
[205] J. Cook, _op. cit._ i. 217 _sq._ Compare J. R. Forster,
_Observations made during a Voyage round the World_, p. 559.
The practice of embalming appears to have been long familiar to the
natives of the Society Islands. The methods employed by them were
simple. Sometimes the juices were merely squeezed out of the corpse,
which was then exposed to the sun and anointed with fragrant oils. At
other times, and apparently more usually, the bowels, entrails, and
brains were extracted, and the cavities filled with cloth soaked in
perfumed oils, which were also injected into other parts of the body.
Scented oils were also rubbed over the outside daily: every day the
corpse was exposed to the sun in a sitting posture: every night it was
laid out horizontally and often turned over, that it might not remain
long on the same side. By these means, combined with the heat of the sun
and the dryness of the atmosphere, the process of desiccation was
effected in the course of a few weeks: the muscular parts and the eyes
shrivelled up; and the wizened body resembled a skeleton covered with
parchment or oilcloth. Thus reduced to a mummy, it was clothed and fixed
in a sitting attitude: a small altar was erected before it; and
offerings of fruit, food, and flowers were daily presented by the
relatives or by the priest who was appointed to attend to it. For if the
deceased was a chief of high rank or great renown, a priest or other
person was set apart to wait upon the corpse and to present food to its
mouth at different hours of the day. They supposed that the soul still
hovered over the mouldering remains and was pleased by such marks of
attention. Hence during the exposure of the body in the temporary house
the mourners would sometimes renew their lamentations there, and,
wounding themselves with shark's teeth, wipe off the blood on a cloth,
and deposit the bloody rag beside the mummy as a proof of their
affection. In this state the desiccated body was preserved for many
months till the flesh had completely decayed; Ellis was of opinion that
the best-preserved of these mummies could not be kept for more than
twelve months. The bones were then scraped, washed, and buried within
the precincts of the family temple (_morai_), if the deceased was a
chief; but if he was a commoner, they were interred outside of the holy
ground. However, the skull was not buried with the bones; it was
carefully wrapt in fine cloth and kept in a box by the family, it might
be for several generations. Sometimes the box containing the skull was
deposited at the temple, but often it was hung from the roof of the
house.[206] At marriage the skulls of ancestors were sometimes brought
out and set before the bride and bridegroom in order, apparently, to
place the newly wedded pair under the guardianship of the ancestral
spirits who had once animated these relics of mortality.[207] In time of
war victorious enemies would sometimes despoil the temples of the
vanquished and carry off the bones of famous men interred in them; these
they would then subject to the utmost indignity by converting them into
chisels, borers, or fish-hooks. To prevent this sacrilege the relations
of the dead conveyed the bones of their chiefs, and even the bodies of
persons who had lately died, to the mountains and hid them in caverns
among the most inaccessible rocks and lofty precipices of these wild
solitudes.[208] Where the mountains advance to the coast, many of these
caves exist in the face of cliffs overhanging the sea; for the most part
they are situated in places which Europeans can reach only with the help
of ropes and ladders, though the natives, it is said, can clamber up the
steepest crags with ease. Few even of the islanders know the situation
of the caverns, and fewer still will consent to act as guides to the
curious stranger who may wish to explore their recesses; for the fear of
the ghosts, who are supposed to haunt these ancient depositories of the
dead, is yet deeply rooted in the native mind. Moreover, the mouths of
the caves are generally so low and overgrown with shrubs and creepers
that they may easily be overlooked by an observer standing in front of
them. Some of the grottos are said to be still full of skulls, or were
so down to the end of the nineteenth century.[209] The mummies as well
as the bones were liable to be captured by an invader, and were esteemed
trophies not less glorious than foemen slain in battle. Hence during an
invasion the mummies were generally the first things to be carried off
for safety to the mountains.[210]
[206] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 93 _sq._, 135 _sq._, 218, 219, vi.
47 _sq._; J. R. Forster, _Observations made during a Voyage
round the World_, pp. 561 _sq._; J. Wilson, _op. cit._ pp. 212
_sq._, 363 _sq._; W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 400 _sq._, 404 _sq._,
405 _sq._; J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 554.
[207] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 272, who observes that the
survivors "considered the spirits of the proprietors of these
skulls as the guardian spirits of the family."
[208] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 405.
[209] A. Baessler, _Neue Suedsee-Bilder_ (Berlin, 1900), pp. 37
_sq._, 81 _sq._, 83.
[210] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 364.
A dangerous pollution was supposed to be contracted by all who had
handled a corpse. Hence the persons employed in embalming a body were
carefully shunned by every one else so long as the process lasted,
because the guilt of the crime for which the deceased had died was
supposed to attach in some degree to such as touched his mortal remains.
The embalmers did not feed themselves, lest the food, defiled by the
touch of their polluted hands, should cause their death; so they were
fed by others.[211] This state of uncleanness lasted for a month, during
which the tabooed persons were forbidden to handle food as well as to
put it into their own mouths.[212]
[211] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 403.
[212] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 363.
Again, when the ceremony of depositing the sins of the deceased in a
hole[213] was over, all who had touched the body or the garments of the
deceased, which were buried or destroyed, fled precipitately into the
sea to cleanse themselves from the pollution which they had incurred by
contact with the corpse; and they cast into the sea the garments they
had worn while they were engaged in the work. Having bathed, they
gathered a few pieces of coral from the bottom of the sea, and returning
with them to the house, addressed the dead body, saying, "With you may
the pollution be." With these words they threw down the pieces of coral
on the top of the hole that had been dug to receive all the objects
defiled by their connexion with the deceased.[214]
[213] See above, p. 305.
[214] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 403.
When a person had died of an infectious disorder, the priests entreated
him to bury the disease with him in the grave and not to inflict it upon
other people, when he revisited them as a ghost. They also threw a
plantain into the grave, and either buried with him or burned all his
utensils, that nobody might be infected by them.[215]
[215] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 364.
Sec. 9. _The Fate of the Soul after Death_
The natives of the Society Islands believed in the immortality of the
human soul, or at all events in its separate existence after death[216];
they thought that no person perishes or becomes extinct.[217] On its
departure from the body the spirit, now called a _tee_, _teehee_, or
_tii_, was supposed to linger near its old habitation, whether the
mouldering remains exposed on the bier, or the bones buried in the
earth, or the skull kept in its box. In this state the spirits were
believed to lodge in small wooden images, seldom more than eighteen
inches high, which were placed round about the burial-ground.[218] These
images are variously said to have borne the same name (_tee_, _teehee_)
as the spirits which inhabited them,[219] or to have been called by a
different name (_unus_)[220]. Specimens of these images were seen by
George Forster in Tahiti. He says that round about the _marai_ (_morai_)
of Aheatua, at that time King of Tiarroboo, "were placed
perpendicularly, or nearly so, fifteen slender pieces of wood, some
about eighteen feet long, in which six or eight diminutive human figures
of a rude unnatural shape were carved, standing above each other, male
or female promiscuously, yet so that the uppermost was always a male.
All these figures faced the sea, and perfectly resembled some which are
carved on the sterns of their canoes, and which they call _e-tee_."[221]
To the same effect George Forster's father, J. R. Forster, observes that
"near the _marais_ are twenty or thirty single pieces of wood fixed into
the ground, carved all over on one side with figures about eighteen
inches long, rudely representing a man and a woman alternately, so that
often more than fifteen or twenty figures may be counted on one piece of
wood, called by them _Teehee_."[222] But the souls of the dead, though
they inhabited chiefly the wooden figures erected at the temples or
burial-grounds (_marais_, _morais_), were by no means confined to them,
and were dreaded by the natives, who believed that during the night
these unquiet spirits crept into people's houses and ate the heart and
entrails of the sleepers, thus causing their death.[223]
[216] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 222, vi. 150.
[217] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 345.
[218] J. R. Forster, _Observations made during a Voyage round
the World_, pp. 552, 553; G. Forster, _Voyage round the World_,
ii. 151 _sq._
[219] J. R. Forster and G. Forster, _ll.cc._
[220] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 348, "the _unus_, or
curiously carved pieces of wood marking the sacred places of
interment, and emblematical of _tiis_ or spirits."
[221] G. Forster, _op. cit._ i. 267. Compare J. A. Moerenhout,
_op. cit._ i. 461, "_Les images des Tiis etaient placees aux
extremites des marais et gardaient l'enceinte des terres
sacrees_."
[222] J. R. Forster, _op. cit._ pp. 544 _sq._ In the southern
peninsula of Tahiti, both on the coast and inland, Captain Cook
saw many sepulchral buildings, and he described them as
"decorated with many carved boards, which were set upright, and
on the top of which were various figures of birds and men: on
one in particular there was the representation of a cock, which
was painted red and yellow, to imitate the feathers of that
animal, and rude images of men were, in some of them, placed one
upon the head of another." See J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 150 _sq._
These "carved boards" were no doubt of the same sort as the
_tees_ or _teehees_ described by the two Forsters. No other
writer seems to mention the figures of birds carved on them.
[223] J. R. Forster, _op. cit._ p. 543.
However, the Society Islanders appear to have been by no means
consistent in the views which they held concerning the fate of the soul
after death. Like many other people, they seem to have wavered between a
belief that the souls of the dead lingered invisible near their old
homes and the belief that the disembodied spirits went away to a distant
land, where all human souls, which have departed this life, met and
dwelt together. Or perhaps it might be more correct to say, that instead
of wavering between these two inconsistent beliefs, they held them both
firmly without perceiving their inconsistency. At all events these
islanders believed that either at death or at some time after it their
souls departed to a distant place called _po_ or Night, the common abode
of gods and of departed spirits.[224] Thither the soul was conducted by
other spirits, and on its arrival it was eaten by the gods, not all at
once, but by degrees. They imagined that the souls of ancestors or
relatives, who ranked among the gods, scraped the different parts of the
newly arrived spirit with a kind of serrated shell at different times,
after which they ate and digested it. If the soul underwent this process
of being eaten and digested three separate times, it became a deified or
imperishable spirit and might visit the world and inspire living
folk.[225] According to one account, the soul was cooked whole in an
earth-oven, as pigs are baked on earth, and was then placed in a basket
of coco-nut leaves before being served up to the god whom the deceased
had worshipped in life. "By this cannibal divinity he was now eaten up;
after which, through some inexplicable process, the dead and devoured
man emanated from the body of the god, and became immortal."[226] In the
island of Raiatea the great god Oro was supposed to use a scallop-shell
"to scrape the flesh from the bones of newly deceased bodies, previous
to their being converted into pure spirits by being devoured by him, and
afterwards transformed by passing through the laboratory of his cannibal
stomach."[227] This process of being devoured by a god was not conceived
of as a punishment inflicted on wicked people after death; for good and
bad souls had alike to submit to it. Rather, Captain Cook tells us, the
natives considered "this coalition with the deity as a kind of
purification necessary to be undergone before they enter a state of
bliss. For, according to their doctrine, if a man refrain from all
connexion with women some months before death, he passes immediately
into his eternal mansion, without such a previous union; as if already,
by this abstinence, he were pure enough to be exempted from the general
lot."[228] A slightly different account of this process of spiritual
purification is given by the first missionaries to Tahiti. They say that
"when the spirit departs from the body, they have a notion it is
swallowed by the _eat[=o]oa_ (_atua_) bird, who frequents their
burying-places and _morais_, and passes through him in order to be
purified, and be united to the deity. And such are afterwards employed
by him to attend other human beings and to inflict punishment, or remove
sickness, as shall be deemed requisite."[229]
[224] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 396. Compare J. Wilson, _op. cit._
p. 346; J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 431; D. Tyerman and G.
Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 330.
[225] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 396 _sq._; J. A. Moerenhout, _op.
cit._ i. 433.
[226] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _Journal of Voyages and
Travels_, i. 273; compare _ib._ pp. 330 _sq._
[227] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 521 _sq._
[228] J. Cook, _Voyages_, vi. 150.
[229] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ pp. 345 _sq._
In spite of the purification which the souls of the dead underwent by
passing through the body of a god or of a divine bird, they were
believed to be not wholly divested of the passions which had actuated
them in life on earth. If the souls of former enemies met in the world
beyond the grave, they renewed their battles, but apparently to no
purpose, since they were accounted invulnerable in this invisible state.
Again, when the soul of a dead wife arrived in the spirit land, it was
known to the soul of her dead husband, if he had gone before, and the
two renewed their acquaintance in a spacious house, called _tourooa_,
where the souls of the deceased assembled to recreate themselves with
the gods. After that the pair retired to the separate abode of the
husband, where they remained for ever and had offspring, which, however,
was entirely spiritual; for they were neither married nor were their
embraces supposed to be like those of corporeal beings.[230]
[230] J. Cook, _Voyages_, vi. 150 _sq._
In general the situation of _po_ or the land of the dead seems to have
been left vague and indefinite by the Society Islanders; apparently they
did not, like the Western Polynesians, imagine it to be in some far
western isle, to reach which the souls of the departed had to cross a
wide expanse of sea.[231] However, the natives of Raiatea had very
definite ideas on this mysterious subject. They thought that _po_ was
situated in a mysterious and unexplored cavern at the top of the highest
mountain in the island. This cavern, perhaps the crater of a volcano,
was said to communicate, by subterranean passages, with a cave on the
coast, the opening of which is so small that a child of two years could
hardly creep into it. Here an evil spirit (_varu iino_) was said to lurk
and, pouncing out on careless passers-by, to drag them into the darkest
recesses of his den and devour them. After the conversion of the natives
to Christianity the missionaries were shown the spot. Near it were the
ruins of a temple of the war god, where multitudes of the corpses of
warriors slain in battle had been either buried or left to rot on the
ground. The missionaries saw many mouldering fragments of skeletons. Not
far off a cape jutted into the sea, up the lofty and precipitous face of
which the souls of the dead were said to climb on their way to their
long home in the cavern at the top of the mountain. A native informant
assured the missionaries that he had often seen them scaling the dizzy
crag, both men and women.[232]
[231] See above, pp. 87 _sq._, 214 _sqq._, 238 _sqq._
[232] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 537 _sq._
In the island of Borabora the fate even of kings after death was
believed to be a melancholy one. Their souls were converted into a piece
of furniture resembling an English hat-stand; only in Borabora the
corresponding utensil was the branch of a tree with the lateral forks
cut short, on which bonnets, garments, baskets, and so forth were
suspended. The natives very naturally concluded that in the other world
a similar stand was wanted for the convenience of the ghosts, to hang
their hats and coats on. Kings who shrank from the prospect of being
converted into a hat-stand after death made interest with the priest to
save them from such a degradation. So when a king who had been great and
powerful in life saw his end approaching, he would send to the priests
the most costly presents, such as four or five of the largest and
fattest hogs, as many of the best canoes, and any rare and valuable
European article which he happened to possess. In return the priests
prayed for him daily at the temples till he died; and afterwards his
dead body was brought to one of these sacred edifices and kept upright
there for several days and nights, during which yet larger gifts were
sent by his relatives, and the most expensive sacrifices offered to the
idols. The decaying corpse was then removed, placed on a canoe, and
rowed out on the lagoon as far as an opening in the reef, only to be
brought back again in like manner; while all the time the priests
recited their prayers and performed their lugubrious ceremonies
over it on the water as well as on the land. Finally, the mouldering
remains were laid out to rot on a platform in one of the usual
charnel-houses.[233]
[233] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 331 _sq._
Conversion into a hat-stand was not, perhaps, the worst that could
happen to the soul of a Society Islander after death. In the island of
Raiatea there is a lake surrounded by trees, the tops of which appear
curiously flat. On this verdant platform the spirits of the newly
departed were said to dance and feast together until, at a subsequent
stage of their existence, they were converted into cockroaches.[234] The
souls of infants killed at birth were supposed to return in the bodies
of grasshoppers.[235]
[234] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 522.
[235] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 455.
But the Society Islanders were far from thinking that the souls of the
dead herded together indiscriminately in the other world. They imagined
that the spirits were discriminated and assigned to abodes of different
degrees of happiness or misery, not according to their virtues or vices
in this life, but according to the rank which they had occupied in
society, one receptacle of superior attractions being occupied by the
souls of chiefs and other principal people, while another of an inferior
sort sufficed to lodge the souls of the lower orders. For they did not
suppose that their good or bad actions in this life affected in the
least their lot in the life hereafter, or that the deities took account
of any such distinction. Thus their religion exerted no influence on
their morality.[236] Happiness and misery in the world beyond the
grave, we are told, "were the destiny of individuals, altogether
irrespective of their moral character and virtuous conduct. The only
crimes that were visited by the displeasure of their deities were the
neglect of some rite or ceremony, or the failing to furnish required
offerings."[237]
[236] J. Cook, i. 222. Compare _id._, vi. 150; J. R. Forster,
_Observations made on a Voyage round the World_, pp. 553 _sqq._
[237] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 397. Compare J. A. Moerenhout,
_op. cit._ i. 433.
The Society Islanders, especially the natives of the Leeward Islands,
believed that some of the souls of the dead were destined to enjoy a
kind of heaven or paradise, which they called _Rohutu noanoa_,
"sweet-scented Rohutu." This blissful region was supposed to be near a
lofty and stupendous mountain in the island of Raiatea, not far from the
harbour Hamaniino. The mountain went by the name of _Temehani unauna_,
"splendid or glorious Temehani." It was probably the same with the lofty
mountain on whose summit popular fancy placed the _po_ or common abode
of the dead.[238] But the paradise was invisible to mortal eyes, being
situated in the regions of the air (_reva_). The country was described
as most lovely and enchanting in appearance, adorned with flowers of
every shape and hue, and perfumed with odours of every fragrance. The
air was pure and salubrious. Every sort of delight was to be enjoyed
there; while rich viands and delicious fruits were supplied in abundance
for the celebration of sumptuous festivals. Handsome youths and women
thronged the place. But these honours and pleasures were only for the
privileged orders--the chiefs and the members of the society of the
Areois--for only they could afford to pay the heavy charges which the
priests exacted for a passport to paradise; common folk seldom or never
dreamed of attempting to procure for their relatives admission to the
abode of bliss. Even apart from the expense of getting to heaven, it is
probable that the sharp distinction kept up between chiefs and commoners
here on earth would be expected to be maintained hereafter, and to
exclude every person of the humbler sort from the society of his betters
in the future life.[239] The other less exclusive, and no doubt less
expensive, place for departed spirits, in contrast to "sweet-scented
Rohutu," went by the significant name of "foul-scented Rohutu"; but over
the nature of the substances which earned for it this unsavoury
appellation our missionary authority preferred to draw a veil.[240]
[238] See above, p. 317.
[239] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 245 _sq._, 397; J. A. Moerenhout,
_op. cit._ i. 434 _sq._
[240] J. Williams, _Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the
South Sea Islands_, p. 476.
According to one account, the souls of the dead were supposed to gather
in the sun, where they feasted with the god Maouwe or O-Mauwee (Maui) on
bread-fruit and the flesh of pigs or dogs, and drank never-ending
draughts of kava.[241]
[241] J. R. Forster, _Observations made during a Voyage round
the World_, p. 553; G. Forster, _Voyage round the World_, ii.
151.
But wherever the souls of the dead were imagined to dwell, we may infer
that they were credited with the power of returning to earth for a
longer or shorter time to benefit or injure the living. For we have seen
that sickness and death were commonly ascribed to the action of these
spirits,[242] which seems to imply that they revisited this sublunary
world on their errands of mischief. Accordingly, whenever the natives
approached by night one of the charnel-houses in which dead bodies were
exposed, they were startled "in the same manner that many of our
ignorant and superstitious people are with the apprehension of ghosts,
and at the sight of a churchyard." Again, the souls of the departed were
sometimes thought to communicate with their friends in dreams and to
announce to them things that should afterwards come to pass, thus
enabling the dreamer to foretell the future. Foreknowledge thus
acquired, however, was confined to particular persons, and such favoured
dreamers enjoyed a reputation little inferior to that of the inspired
priests. One of them prophesied to Captain Cook on the strength of a
communication vouchsafed to him by the soul of his deceased father in a
dream; but the event proved that the ghost was out in his reckoning by
five days.[243]
[242] See above, pp. 299 _sqq._
[243] J. Cook, _Voyages_, vi. 152.
The fear of ghosts in the minds of the Society Islanders has long
survived their conversion to Christianity; indeed, we are informed that
it is as rampant as ever. No ordinary native would dare to visit one of
the lonely caves where the mouldering bones or skulls of his forefathers
were deposited for safety in days of old.[244] At one point on the
western coast of Tahiti, where the mountains advance in precipices close
to the sea, the road which skirts their base is a place of fear to the
natives. For in these precipices are caves full of skulls, and the
ghosts who reside in the caverns are reported sometimes to weary of
their own society and to come down to the road for company, where in a
sportive vein they play all sorts of tricks on passers-by. Not so long
ago three Tahitians were riding home at dusk from Papeete, where they
had been drinking rum. Just at the pass under the cliff they were
surprised by ghosts, who threw them into the ditch at the side of the
road. So great is the dread which the natives entertain of apparitions
at this spot that the Government has been compelled to divert the road,
so that it no longer skirts the foot of the haunted mountain, but gives
it a wide berth, and runs in a long sweep by the edge of the sea.[245]
[244] A. Baessler, _Neue Suedsee-Bilder_, p. 37.
[245] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ pp. 83 _sq._
Again, at another point on the west coast of Tahiti, where mighty
mountains, a glorious sea, and little coral islands with their groves of
palms, offer a view of enchanting beauty, there is said to be a cave
containing the skulls of chiefs in a jutting cliff half-way up the
mountain. The cave was in charge of an old man in whose family the
office of guardian was hereditary. It had been entrusted to him by his
father on his deathbed, and the son had kept the secret faithfully ever
since. In vain did a traveller seek to persuade the old man to guide him
to the cave; in vain did the chief himself beg of him to reveal the
grotto which concealed the mouldering relics of his forefathers. The
guardian was obdurate; he believed that the world was not wide enough to
hold two men who knew the holy place. He assured the traveller that
nobody could reach the cave without the help of the ghosts, so
perpendicular and so smooth was the face of the cliff that led up to it.
When he himself wished to make his way to it, his custom was to go to
the foot of the crag and pray, till the spirits came and wafted him
lightly up and down again; otherwise it would have been a sheer
impossibility for him to ascend and descend.[246]
[246] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ pp. 81 _sq._
Sec. 10. _The Worship of the Dead_
The belief in the existence of the spirits of the dead, and in their
power to help or harm the living, naturally led the Society Islanders,
like so many other peoples of the world, to propitiate these powerful
beings, to sue their favour, or to appease their anger by prayer and
sacrifice, in short, to worship them. On this subject the first
missionaries to these islanders tell us that, in addition to the greater
gods, "for general worship they have an inferior race, a kind of _dii
penates_. Each family has its _tee_ or guardian spirit: he is supposed
to be one of their departed relatives, who, for his superior
excellences, has been exalted into an _eatooa_ (_atua_). They suppose
this spirit can inflict sickness or remove it, and preserve them from a
malignant deity who also bears the name _tee_, and is always employed in
mischief."[247] "Every family has its _tee_, or guardian spirit, whom
they set up, and worship at the _morai_."[248] "They regard the spirits
of their ancestors, male and female, as exalted into _eatooas_ (_atuas_)
and their favour to be secured by prayers and offerings. Every sickness
and untoward accident they esteem as the hand of judgment for some
offence committed."[249] As for the mischievous spirit who bore the same
name as the worshipful spirit of a dead ancestor, the missionaries say
that "the evil demon named _Tee_ has no power but upon earth; and this
he exercises by getting into them with their food, and causing madness
or other diseases; but these they imagine their tutelar saints, if
propitious, can prevent or remove."[250]
[247] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 344.
[248] T. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 343.
[249] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 345. "The general name for deity,
in all its ramifications, is _eatooa_" (_id._ p. 343).
[250] J. Wilson, p. 346.
We may suspect that the missionaries were mistaken in thus sharply
distinguishing between an "evil demon" and a "tutelar saint," both of
whom went by the same name (_tee_). Probably the "evil demon" and the
"tutelar saint" were alike supposed to be souls of dead persons, with
this difference between them, that whereas the one had been good and
beneficent in his life, the other had been bad and maleficent; for it
is a common belief that the dead retain in the other world the character
and disposition which they manifested on earth, and that accordingly as
disembodied spirits they may benefit or injure their surviving
relatives.[251] Thus according to his character and behaviour in this
present state of existence a person's ghost may naturally develop either
into a god or into a devil.
[251] In confirmation of my conjecture that the missionaries
mistook a general name (_tee_, otherwise spelled _tii_) for the
name of a particular demon, I may point out that the naturalist
J. R. Forster before them seems to have fallen into precisely
the same mistake with regard to another general name for
departed spirits (_oramatuas_ or _oromatuas_). Thus he writes:
"Besides these divinities of the second class, there are others
of a still inferior rank, and though called _Eatooas_, are no
more than what the Greek or Roman mythologists would have called
_Genii_, or _Dii minorum gentium_: one of them, called
_Orometooa_, is of a malignant disposition, resides chiefly near
the _Marais_ and _Toopapous_ (places of burial) and in or near
the boxes, or little chests, including the heads of their
deceased friends, each of which, on that account, is called
_Te-wharre no te Orometooa_, the house of the evil genius
_Orometooa_, The people at Taheitee are of opinion, that if
their priests invoke this evil genius, he will kill, by a sudden
death, the person on whom they intend to bring down the
vengeance of this divinity." See J. R. Forster, _Observations
made during a Voyage round the World_, pp. 541 _sq._ In this
passage we can hardly doubt that "this evil genius," Orometooa,
is simply the _oramatuas_ or _oromatuas_, the spirits of the
dead, by means of whom sorcerers were supposed to injure or
destroy any one at whom they or their employers had a grudge.
See above, p. 299, and below, pp. 323 _sqq._
It is to be feared that in the case of Tahitian ghosts the course of
spiritual evolution was rather in the direction of devilry than of
deity. At least this conclusion seems forced on us by the account which
William Ellis, perhaps our best authority on Tahitian religion, gives of
the character of these worshipful beings. I will reproduce it in his own
words.
"The objects of worship among the Tahitians, next to the _atua_ or gods,
were the _oramatuas tiis_ or spirits. These were supposed to reside in
the _po_, or world of night, and were never invoked but by wizards or
sorcerers, who implored their aid for the destruction of an enemy, or
the injury of some person whom they were hired to destroy. They were
considered a different order of beings from the gods, a kind of
intermediate class between them and the human race, though in their
prayers all the attributes of the gods were ascribed to them. The
_oramatuas_ were the spirits of departed fathers, mothers, brothers,
sisters, children, etc. The natives were greatly afraid of them, and
presented offerings to avoid being cursed or destroyed, when they were
employed by the sorcerers.
"They seem to have been regarded as a sort of demons. In the Leeward
Islands, the chief _oramatuas_ were spirits of departed warriors, who
had distinguished themselves by ferocity and murder, attributes of
character usually supposed to belong to these evil genii. Each
celebrated _tii_ was honoured with an image, through which it was
supposed his influence was exerted. The spirits of the reigning chiefs
were united to this class, and the skulls of deceased rulers, kept with
the images, were honoured with the same worship. Some idea of what was
regarded as their ruling passion, may be inferred from the fearful
apprehensions constantly entertained by all classes. They were supposed
to be exceedingly irritable and cruel, avenging with death the slightest
insult or neglect, and were kept within the precincts of the temple. In
the _marae_ of Tane at Maeva, the ruins of their abode were still
standing when I last visited the place. It was a house built upon a
number of large strong poles, which raised the floor ten or twelve feet
from the ground. They were thus elevated, to keep them out of the way of
men, as it was imagined they were constantly strangling, or otherwise
destroying, the chiefs and people. To prevent this, they were also
treated with great respect; men were appointed constantly to attend
them, and to keep them wrapped in the choicest kinds of cloth, to take
them out whenever there was a _pae atua_, or general exhibition of the
gods; to anoint them frequently with fragrant oil; and to sleep in the
house with them at night. All this was done, to keep them pacified. And
though the office of calming the angry spirits was honourable, it was
regarded as dangerous, for if, during the night or at any other time,
these keepers were guilty of the least impropriety, it was supposed the
spirits of the images, or the skulls, would hurl them headlong from
their high abodes, and break their necks in the fall."[252]
[252] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_. i. 334-336.
The difference in power and dignity between the great national gods
(_atuas_) and the spirits of deceased relations (_oramatuas tiis_) might
be measured by the size of their images; for whereas the images of the
gods were six or eight feet long, those of the spirits were not more
than so many inches.[253] But while these malignant and irritable
spirits--the souls of dead fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and
children--resided generally either in their little images or in their
skulls, they were not strictly confined to these material vehicles; they
resorted occasionally to the shells from the seashore, especially to a
beautiful kind of murex, the _Murex ramoces_. These shells were kept by
the sorcerers, and the peculiar singing or humming sound that may be
heard when the valve is applied to the ear was imagined to proceed from
the demon in the shell.[254]
[253] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 337.
[254] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 363.
It was these malignant and dangerous demons whom the sorcerer employed
as his agents to execute his fell purposes. But to effect them he had to
secure something connected with the body of his intended victim, it
might be the parings of his nails, a lock of his hair, his spittle or
other bodily secretions, or else a portion of the food which he was
about to eat. Over this material substance, whatever it was, the
sorcerer recited his incantations and performed his magical rites either
in his own house or in his private temple (_marae_). The result was
believed to be that the demon entered into the substance, and through it
passed into the body of the man at whom the enchanter aimed his elfish
darts. The wretched sufferer experienced the acutest agonies; his
distortions were frightful to witness; his eyes seemed starting from his
head; he foamed at the mouth; he lay writhing in anguish on the ground;
in short, to adopt the native expression, he was torn by the evil
spirit. Yet his case was not hopeless; the demon could be mollified by a
bribe, or defeated by the intervention of a more powerful demon. Hence,
when any one was believed to be suffering from the incantations of a
sorcerer, if he or his friends were rich enough they engaged another
sorcerer for a fee to counteract the spells of the first and so to
restore the health of the invalid. It was generally supposed that the
efforts of the second sorcerer would be crowned with success if only the
demon whom he employed were equally powerful with that at the command of
his rival, and if the presents which he received for his professional
services were more valuable. In order to avoid the danger of being thus
bewitched through the refuse of their persons, the Tahitians used
scrupulously to burn or bury their shorn hair, lest it should fall into
the hands of enchanters.[255]
[255] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 363-370.
It is possible that some even of the great national gods were no more
than ghosts of dead men, whose human origin was forgotten. There is some
reason for supposing that this was true of Hiro, the god of thieves. On
the one hand, this deity was reputed to be the son of the great god
Oro;[256] and when a mother desired her child to grow up a clever thief,
she repaired to a temple, where the priest, on receipt of the requisite
offerings, caught the spirit of the god in a snare and infused it into
the infant, thus ensuring the future proficiency of the infant in the
arts of theft and robbery.[257] Yet, in spite of these claims to
divinity, there are some grounds for thinking that Hiro was himself
originally no better than a thief and a robber. He is said to have been
a native of Raiatea, from whose sacrilegious fingers not even the
temples and altars of the gods were safe. His skull was shown in a large
temple of his own construction in that island down to the early years of
the nineteenth century. His hair, too, was stuffed into the image of his
reputed father, the god Oro, and perished when that image was committed
to the flames by the early converts to Christianity.[258]
[256] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iii. 112, 125.
[257] J. Williams, _Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the
South Sea Islands_, pp. 466 _sq._
[258] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 254 _sq._ As to
Hiro, the god of thieves, see also J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._
i. 447-449.
Once a year the Society Islanders celebrated a festival accompanied by
rites, of which one has been compared to the Roman Catholic custom of
performing a mass for the benefit of souls in purgatory. The festival
was called "the ripening of the year," and the time for its observance
was determined by the blossoming of reeds. It was regularly observed in
the island of Huahine, and vast multitudes assembled to take part in it.
As a rule, only men engaged in the pagan festivals, but at this
particular one women and children were also present, though they were
not allowed to enter the sacred enclosure. The celebration was regarded
as a kind of annual acknowledgment made to the gods. Prayers were
offered at the temple, and a sumptuous banquet formed part of the
festival. At the close of the festival every one returned to his home,
or to his family temple (_marae_), there to offer special prayers for
the spirits of departed relatives, that they might be liberated from the
_po_, or state of Night, and might either ascend to paradise
("sweet-scented Rohutu") or return to this world by entering into the
body of one of its inhabitants. But "they did not suppose, according to
the generally received doctrine of transmigration, that the spirits who
entered the body of some dweller upon earth, would permanently remain
there, but only come and inspire the person to declare future events, or
execute any other commission from the supernatural beings on whom they
imagined they were constantly dependent."[259]
[259] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 351 _sq._ Compare
J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 502 note^1, 523.
Hence we learn that the spirits of the dead as well as the gods were
believed to be capable of inspiring men and revealing to them the
future. In this, as in other respects, the dead were assimilated to
deities.